Norman conquest of England

The Norman conquest of England occurred from 1066 to 1075, when the Norman duke William the Conqueror and his companions invaded, conquered, and subdued the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The Norman invasion of 1066 overthrew six centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule in England. William faced early rebellions, but once had had overcome them he radically reshaped England, replacing its old ruling class with an Anglo-Norman aristocracy and bringing the feudal system of landholding prevalent in Normandy to England.

Background
Duke William of Normandy had, on the face of it, a stronger claim to the English throne than Harold Godwinson, who succeeded Edward the Confessor in 1066. William based his claim on being Edward's cousin. Edward the Confessor's mother, Emma, was the daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy, who was William's great-grandfather. Edward also owed his throne to the assistance William had given him to return to England in 1042, and in 1051 the Confessor is said to have made William his heir. Furthermore, William claimed that Harold Godwinson had paid him homage while in Normandy in 1064.

History
The Norman invasion force that set sail from St-Valery-sur-Somme on 27 September 1066 to enforce Duke William's claim on the English throne was probably no more than 8,000-strong, yet it succeeded in conquering one of the most established monarchies in Europe. William had luck on his side, in that he landed near Pevensey in Sussex, while King Harold Godwinson was away in the north dealing with an invasion led by Harald Hardrada, King of Norway. Harold Godwinson had already defeated the Norwegians and their Anglo-Saxon allies at Stamford Bridge, four days before William's landing, but it was not until 1 October that he heard of the Norman invasion and, after forced marches, it was some two weeks more before he approached the new invaders near Hastings.

William had a fortnight to prepare, but acted cautiously, fortifying the old Roman Saxon shore fort at Pevensey and building a new castle at Hastings, but declining to move on the royal centers of Winchester or London. Harold's death in the subsequent Battle of Hastings on 14 October removed William's main obstacle to the throne, but the Anglo-Saxon nobility did not submit at once, for one remaining alternative candidate survived; Edgar Atheling, the great-grandson of Aethelred the Unready, who had a better claim by blood than William.

Crowning a Norman king
The Norman army advanced slowly, first to Dover, and then via Canterbury towards London. The main surviving Anglo-Saxon leaders, such as Earls Edwin and Morcar, and Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, at first declined to recognize William, but when it became clear his host was too strong to be defeated by their remaining forces, they paid him homage, beginning with Stigand on 15 November. Edgar Atheling was pushed aside and on Christmas Day 1066, William of Normandy was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, using much the same form of ceremonial as had been employed for Harold's coronation barely a year before.

William went first to East Anglia in the New Year, where he received the submission of Earls Edwin and Morcar. He then returned to Normandy in March, taking with him Edwin, Morcar, Edgar Atheling, and Archbishop Stigand, so depriving, as he thought, the Anglo-Saxons of any focus for resistance. He left in charge his half-brother Odo of Bayeux, whom he made Earl of Kent and William FitzOsbern, the Earl of Hereford. The two regents were heavy-handed in their exercise of power, and a rebellion broke out in the west under Eadric the Wild. Although this was put down, another one promptly erupted in Kent.

William was therefore forced to return to England in December 1067, only to find yet another revolt had begun, led by the men of Exeter. William's rule was dangerously threatened and the situation deteriorated in early 1069 when a much more serious uprising occurred in the north. This time earls Edwin and Morcar joined in, together with Edgar Atheling. Although William quickly dispersed the rebels, int he summer the north revolted once more, now with the assistance of a Danish fleet led by the sons of King Sweyn Estrithson. York itself fell on 20 September, and the whole Norman venture in England seemed in peril.

Stamping out resistance
William acted swiftly, striking first west to defeat Eadric the Wild, who had rebelled once more, and then north, devastating the land in a "Harrying of the North" that was remembered for centuries. York - or at least its smouldering ruin - was retaken by Christmas, and then the last rebel stronghold at Chester. There, and at Stafford and other key towns William built new castles to reinforce the Norman control of the northern counties. First made of wood, these would be replaced over the coming century imposing stone fortifications.

Although a residual Anglo-Saxon resistance continued in the East Anglian fens until 1072, William rounded the campaign off with an attack into Scotland to chastise King Malcolm III, who had aided the northern rebels. He was never again seriously threatened and felt able to spend most of the rest of his reign in Normandy, wehre he faced wars in Maine (1073), with Brittany (1076) against the Counts of Anjou (1077-78 and 1081), and against Philip I of France (in 1087).

French nobility
After the revolt of the north, William adopted a conscious policy of replacing the remaining Anglo-Saxon magnates with Frenchmen. The process was so thorough that by 1086 only two Anglo-Saxons held land directly from the king himself (Thurkell of Arden and Colswein of Lincoln). William took for himself a large portion of the confiscated property and for the rest, established a system of feudal tenancies which mirrored the one that was already established in Normandy. As native influence waned, so English came to be replaced as the language of government, with charters and writs being issued largely in Latin.

The use of Latin
Latin became the language of the Church as well as the government, and the old Anglo-Saxon bishops were largely replaced by Normans. In 1070, William had Stigand deposed as Archbishop of Canterbury and replaced by Lanfranc, the Abbot of St. Stephen's monastery in Caen, Normandy. Lanfranc, in turn, consecrated Thomas of Bayeux, another supporter of William, as Archbishop of York and set about reforming the English Church, beginning with the replacement of all the English bishops, save those of Worcester and Rochester, as well as the abbots of major monasteries. In the field of church discipline Lanfranc enforced clerical celibacy. He also supported a programme of cathedral building, which resulted in the construction of basilicas at sites including Canterbury and Winchester.

Surveying the land
Shortly before his death in 1087, William ordered the compilation of a great survey of landholding in his English domains, which formed the basis of the Domesday Book. By recording who had held the land at the time of Edward the Confessor, it showed the extent and scale of the Norman achievement. They had conquered the kingdom and occupied the land.

Aftermath
The later part of William's reign was occupied mainly with wars against Normandy's neighbors, who were concerned that the acquisition of England had made the Duke of Normandy too powerful.

William had decided to divide his territories between his eldest son Robert Curthose, who was to receive Normandy, and Richard his second son, who was to get England. Impatient and provoked by Philip I of France, Robert rebelled in 1078 and 1083, but was on both occasions reconciled to his father. The link between Normandy and England, however, was welcomed.

Richard died in 1081 and a third son, William Rufus, inherited the English throne. He initially faced a coalition of barons, prominent among them Odo of Bayeux, who wanted to see England and Normandy united under Robert's rule. The revolt was put down and Odo captured in 1088. William invaded Normandy in 1091, forcing his brother's submission. A campaign in Scotland followed in 1091-92 to punish Malcolm III, who had been sheltering Edgar Atheling.

In March 1093, William II fell dangerously ill and, in the hope of divine favor, appointed Anselm, an Italian monk, Archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm was an uncompromising supporter of reform and quarrels broke out between king and archbishop. In 1097, Anselm went into exile in Rome and stayed there until William's death.